Common Beetles of our Countryside 



moors (see Plate V., Fig. 16). P. assimilis, as its name 

 implies, is exceedingly like it in fact, it may possibly 

 prove that we should be more correct in considering it 

 as a smaller and darker mountain race or variety of 

 P. excavatus than specifically distinct from that insect. 

 They differ in the following structural details only. 

 P. excavatus has the head smooth, and the third inter- 

 stice of elytra as broad as second ; P. assimilis, on the 

 contrary, has the head transversely wrinkled and the 

 third interstice of elytra distinctly broader than second. 

 The latter is also a much rarer form than the former, 

 and confined to mountainous districts in the north, 

 north-west, and west. The third and final British 

 species of the genus P. scptcntrionalis we are not 

 likely to meet unless our collecting takes place in 

 Scotland. 



By this time we ought to be nearing the summit and 

 look back and down on the devious path of our 

 ascent the long rock strewn slopes up which we have 

 toiled, the wet mossy hollows we have avoided, the spurs 

 and ridges of solid outstanding rock we have overcome. 

 Now it only remains to achieve the final peak, sometimes 

 a mere wild heap of shattered stones ; sometimes a 

 narrow ridge, on one hand sheer precipice and on the 

 other a gentle, grassy slope ; sometimes a short but 

 strenuous climb and then a flat wind-swept plateau. 

 There at least we shall find space to sit down and rest 

 and contemplate the desolate confusion of mountain 

 tops all around, or the great straths that sweep down to 

 the horizon far in the distance. But after a due interval 



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